Lancashire Youth Games – county gymnastics finals

It’s extremely busy at Freshfield at the moment; however I managed to tear myself away from my desk and about three million emails last week to attend The Lancashire Youth Games county finals.

The programme of events has been expanded again this year to include 112 district finals and nine county finals, including a special schools’ swimming gala and the SPAR Lancashire Disability Youth Games. It was the turn of the Gymnastics County Finals this month and it was a fantastic event.

Senior competition manager, Jane Sheridan had once again created a great event for children across Lancashire, offering a brilliant opportunity to get involved with sport and be the best you can be. She was helped by demonstrations and coaching from The City of Preston Gym Club, Gym Mania and Preston City Trampolining Club.

Gold medallist gymnast, Craig Heap attended the event and delivered an inspiring presentation prior to the competition, focusing on finding your own identity and showing the importance of participation and determination. Craig, who was born in Lancashire, captained England to a team Gold in the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and again in Manchester four years later.

Craig is now delivering presentations to a number of pupils across the UK, illustrating how sport can really make a difference to people’s lives. I managed to steal his medals and pretend I was champion, photo taken by Clive Lawrence Photography.

Children were able to compete in both the team and individual sections in one half of the sports hall, whilst those who weren’t participating at the time could enjoy specialist coaching on a number of apparatus. It was so lovely to see grassroot sport being supported like this. I do feel very cross to know that whilst the Lancashire Youth Games, run by The Lancashire Sport Partnership is such a success, the people behind it are losing their jobs and I’m not quite sure why the Government feel this is necessary a year before the 2012 Olympics.

Events like the Youth Games, where young children are encouraged to participate in a number of different sports are likely to lessen across the country and quite frankly it will be a severe loss to so many children. In addition, as a nation, we are unlikely to perform at high standards if sport is not supported from a young age.

The events as a whole have brought together more than 10,000 pupils from hundreds of primary schools across 14 local authority districts.

Winners:

Individual

Boys: 1st William Brimelow, 2nd Leon Bottomley, 3rd Lucas Down

Girls: 1st Holly McCauley, Joint 2nd Harriet Qualter and Yasmin Bannister and 3rd Lucy Harris

Team:

1st Blackpool  (St Teresa’s Primary.)

2nd – Wyre (The Breck.)

3rd Heysham (St Peters.)

Without a blog, is your business really talking to the masses?

The word blog is one of the most popular words on the internet today and with over 360 million people using the internet, businesses must ensure they are using it appropriately to maximise potential.

Whilst there are a number of marketing tools out there, blogging really facilitates communication. It can provide businesses with an excellent opportunity to add fresh content to their websites on a regular basis, act as a powerful tool for real-time discussions and are influential too for building long-term relationships with customers/clients.

The benefits are clear, however  if a business has a desire to begin blogging it needs to be prepared to commit to it. Blogging takes time and resources if it is to be sustained. Here are some of our tips for creating a successful blog:

Determine the primary purpose of your blog

This will depend on what type of organisation you are or what industry you are in, but blogs can be used for a variety of reasons, such as communicating directly with customers on service issues, demonstrating thought leadership and knowledge of your industry, talking about new products and innovations, or announcing news about your company. Before launching in, ask whether having a blog would meet any of your strategic communications objectives.

Remember content is king

Readers will decide within a couple of seconds whether your blog is useful to them. Therefore it has to grab the attention quickly, be of genuine interest, and be clearly and concisely written. If your blog is providing and sharing useful content, it will be read. If it isn’t, it will be ignored. Again, sustaining a successful blog requires resources and expertise. Don’t use it to sell, sell, sell.

Engage with your audience

When unplanned events happen, such as last winter’s treacherous weather conditions, corporate blogs can be a great way of keeping your customers up to date. If business is disrupted a blog can allow you to get valuable and timely information to your customers about how you are responding. A good blog should also enable effective two way communication with customers. A word of caution here though – if you allow members of the public to communicate directly with your organisation, you have to be prepared to respond to negative comments and this will require its own approach.

Know how to market your blog

Once you have started to build content, you should integrate additional social media platforms into your blog, such as your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts as this will further strengthen your online presence. Using links to direct people to other authoritative content can help position you as an expert and a sharer of valuable information. Remember that this will require some technical knowledge.

Set guidelines for digital engagement

While engaging with your audiences and stakeholders online can certainly prove worthwhile, it is vital to be aware of the risks. Remember that once something is live online, it has a potential audience of millions. Pitfalls can include publishing misleading information, damaging the company’s credibility, or a lack of comment moderation. It is therefore advisable to set clear protocols and style guidelines for the team responsible for writing and uploading blogs.

In summary, business blogs can be an extremely valuable tool for your business, but they need to be properly resourced and aligned with business strategy. Successful planning and professional execution is the key to establishing and maintaining a successful blog.

The importance of personal development in PR

As a PR practictioner and a social media specialist it’s easy to assume you are ahead of the game. Today,  however, I benefited from an online PR workshop delivered by Nigel Hughes which showed me that there is always more to learn.

Whilst the workshop was delivered at the Freshfield office, it took me away from everyday office thinking and reminded me of the importance of sharing knowledge. Nigel delivered a presentation explaining the importance of online PR, for a PR person. Often, we are so consumed with pitching the importance of online PR to clients, that we can sometimes become disengaged from advances within the industry and our own development.

I took in so many new tools to add to the PR armoury that my brain feels a bit frazzled. However, the end result means I am able to offer a wealth of knowledge to clients which gives them an extensive service. Developing my expertise regularly will allow me to remain confident in running PR campaigns and continue to achieve successful results.

You need to ask yourself if you are truly on the pulse and no matter how busy you are make time for your own development. At Freshfield, continued development is vital to give our clients a return on investment. Believe in better and broaden your skills.

Don’t take my word for it, try it yourself.

A Fresh New Role for Me ….

I haven’t created a blog for a while as I’ve been settling in to a new role at Freshfield Marketing Communications.  In fact, I feel like I have settled in very well, having at least two coats and three Tupperware boxes stashed at the office. No one appears to mind my random outbursts of conversation – thank God! I’m lucky to inherit some fantastic clients in retail, leisure and financial services and this means that my work is extremely varied.

I did prevent myself from visiting the loo for the first week as I didn’t manage to remember the countless door codes and I feared I’d get locked out, that aside, Freshfield is a team of hardworking professionals who are non-fluffy and really down to earth.

This week I have been creating social media proposals and working extensively on media relations. I also managed to persuade a well-known city businessman to dress up and pretend to slay a dragon for publicity which proves that PR is never predictable.

PR professionals have had to adapt rapidly to the changing PR landscape, marrying traditional media with social media and really utilising an array of platforms in order to achieve coverage. However, I feel that as long as you put yourself in the correct creative and professional circles, you can achieve a successful output, giving clients a real ROI.

I’m happy to be working in a job which is pretty dam relentless but a role where I can use my creativity and communication skills.

Life without an iphone

Ok, I admit it, maybe it was a bit unhealthy to be checking my facebook and email so much but I really miss my iphone! I have recently changed jobs and a new shiny iphone was part of my package as it really aids PR Managers, now I have had to return it and I feel like I have lost a limb.

I never thought I’d be one of those people who had a compulsion to download the most talked about app or be in a position where I would be updating my Linkedin, twitter and facebook, whilst checking in somewhere on foursquare!!!

Though this may seem quite normal to iphone users and strange to those who don’t own one, I feel I do need to explain what a difference it does make to your daily life.

Email: In the PR industry it is extremely important to deal with things in real time, a piece of news could be so advantageous to a client and so being able to look at news updates when you are away from your laptop can also allow you to forward it onto a client with a summary on how to respond in order to gain coverage.

Tweetdeck: I miss out on soooooo much now I don’t have my iphone, when appropriate, I am used to tweeting throughout the day and also checking on my boyfriend’s twitter account for his band. I can only do this on my laptop now and lets face it, there’s just not enough hours in the day to log in and check on everything but with an iphone you can check on all the latest at the swipe of a button and also be informed when people tweet you.

SkySports: The weekend’s aren’t the same any more, if I’m at my snowboarding lesson or out visiting friends, I can’t sneakily check my phone for the latest scores. On my standard Nokia it takes forever to scroll down to the sports pages and it just leaves you feeling frustrated.

Am I just being really impatient and is this what our world has come to where everyone expects things in the here and now, or has the iphone created a fantastic way of making life easier for people? To be honest, I don’t really care, it’s more of a habit for me, I’m used to having things literally at my fingertips.In everyday life, I am now faced with getting lost and having to find my own way, rather than using the maps app and waiting to get to a cash machine to find out my balance, rather than knowing in an instant whether I can afford those shoes!

Bye bye iphone, I hope our paths will cross once more.

Stretch-Wrecker: How to annoy your other half

I’ve been way too busy to update my blog I’m afraid, not very good for someone who is meant to be leading by example, however my clients have been taking priority recently!

So… what do you do when you’ve worked hard on something?? Yes, that’s right you take a big old stretch! If you’re tired as well, then you often add in a bit of a yawn too. It feels good doesn’t it?

Imagine your dismay when someone intrudes your stretch or interrupts your yawn!! I’m afraid the consequence is a feeling of utter despair, there is no satisfaction, your muscles feel like they have been cheated and you will never get back that same yawn, no matter how hard you try!

It’s evil, however this action has been coined as ‘stretch-wrecking.’  I rudely carried out stretch-wrecking on my other half this weekend and I have not been allowed to forget it since but by god it’s funny! Seeing the disappointment on somone’s face is, I am afraid, absolutely hilarious!

All you need to do to be a pro stretch-wrecker is the following;

1. pick the perfect time, when your victim is wanting a full arms out, legs out stretch

2. wait for the yawn (usually when the arms are at nearing their highest point)

3. Inflict the poke to the side of the body

Tip: Whilst putting the finger in the mouth of the yawn gives you the same desired effect, you may well end up without fingers, so I would suggest the poke under the ribs method.

Lancashire Business Week

Members of the private sector gathered together for Lancashire Business Week. A series of events took place across Preston in order to listen to key speakers and discuss the future of Lancashire, in particular the transition of Preston to becoming a well known city!

Yes we have a great football team (I know that’s debatable) but Preston also houses some hidden gems, assets which currently aren’t being utilised. In order to really create a clear identity for Preston and promote this to the rest of the UK, we need to form a consensus on what the city can offer, residents need to be proud and businesses need to invest in it’s future.

Stephen Hodgson, Partner at Marsden Rawsthorn delivered a fantatstic viewpoint and being a Preston man himself, his thoughts really rang true.

“Despite attempts to encourage businesses to move to the centre, little action has taken place in Preston for over 30 years! This is mainly due to previous disagreements between County Councils and Preston City Council and it is therefore important to regain confidence in order to progress with any strategic plans.

“Marsden Rawsthorn itself moved away from the city centre to Fulwood in order to be near good transport links, the purpose built offices boast parking spaces which were not available in the centre. Out of town developments are the only areas which have moved forward in recent years such as Deepdale Retail Park, The Capitol Centre, Uclan and out of town Business Parks. This highlights the many issues with the City Centre. Firstly it is only the main players on the high street who are gradually increasing in confidence and more needs to be done to ensure many more see the benefit of a city centre location. Secondly, though developers are active they will not commit to any ownership until there is clarity from both the council and the Government and finally the infrastructure of Preston needs to be addressed. Access to motorways and key routes in and out of the city centre needs to improve in order to encourage businesses to move into the city. In addition existing assets unique to Preston should be utilised. The Miller Arcade, Winkley Square and the Flag Market are just a few to mention, these are unique to the town and should be well connected to the High Street.

If plans for regeneration are to ever move forward, local perception and needs should be taken into account. The funding is there but only for the right deal, one which is right for Preston.”

To conclude the week of discussions and presentations, Marsden Rawsthorn hosted a “What’s Next for Preston” debate which finally highlighted some forward thinking and people in attendance created a “can-do” approach.

All we need to do now is communicate this to all those living in the area, lets get people talking about The 2012 Guild, lets events planned which will attract thousands of people and lets get our heads together, rather than debate over the bus station for another 5 years!

Proud Preston!

For further information on Marsden Rawsthorn services, visit http://www.marsdenrawsthorn.com/

Lib Dems Must Put PR First

So David Cameron has failed by not delivering in terms of a straight win, Gordon Brown’s inappropriate smiling and ‘bigoted woman’ error led to a failure to gain public support but personally I feel the real failure here was Nick Clegg’s inability to manipulate the media.
I don’t think the Liberal Democrats ever thought they could get their feet in the door at Number Ten, however they did intend to gain around 120 seats and ensure that this time, the party would be a force to be reckoned with. It was all going so well for the face behind the policies, so what happened?
With the force of social media and the increase of availability in news over 24hours, the playing field for this election was well and truly open for the three main party leaders to abuse. Clegg, wishing to break the mould of British Politics seemed to start a revival for the Lib Dem’s on the live election debates, winning the first popularity poll. Not only was the debate a new aspect of willing for our votes but alikened to “The x Factor” it was a genius way of engaging with younger voters. In addition, all three of these debates would obviously create the front pages of the newspapers the following morning. The first of these read: “Big Guns Trained on Nick Clegg after TV debate triumph – The Times” “King Maker Clegg Wins the TV War of Words – The Daily Mail”
It was clear that many would then try to cloud the waters and it soon became apparent that Clegg’s hard work on the debates would be damaged by allegations of accepting cash from party donors but this still didn’t really affect the polls. But whilst Brown and Cameron continued to fight and deliver diminishing advertising attacks on each other, Clegg stepped back and the momentum he gained, slowly slipped away.
Cameron’s campaigners had informed the press of his urgency to visit as many constituency’s as possible, even through the night, whilst Brown continued to announce his plans to get Britain through the drain of the current economy – what did Clegg do? He spent time with his family. Whilst his PR team thought this would demonstrate his passion for a normal family life it also highlighted the fact that the man who reigned victorious in the run up to the election had suddenly run out of steam.
To make matters worse, when we all woke up to a political mess on Friday May 6th Clegg woke up to not only a disappointing election outcome but also the prospect of all eyes being on him as the Conservatives look towards him up for a coalition.
We all have to wait to see whether the Liberal Democrats can now learn from their inability to use the media correctly and put spin on whatever choice they come to. A challenge, which at the moment seems impossible. Forming an association with the Conservatives will anger all those who voted NO to a Conservative government and let’s not forget how many people actually voted for Labour, despite thirteen years of making wrong decisions!
So whilst we are all discussing the possible CON-DEM Nation of the UK’s new Government, I really hope that whoever is handling Clegg’s PR has a few brain cells!

CIPR spreads their wings at the Sandbox

I attended a great event last night at The Sandbox in Preston. The title was CIPR’s “The Future of PR” event. I must admit it was very different to what I expected, yet I did get a lot out of it and realised though PR is a very complex industry, those who are the cogs within the machine share the same concerns and views.

Upon on arrival, it seemed to be just another networking event and having had one of the busiest weeks so far at Stage9 I did think I might get a cold glass of white wine (you know the crisp white wine with the condensation on the outside of the glass that shouts… “YES, you deserve this!”) I didn’t get my wine, I just got orange and crisps so things weren’t looking good really.

Following a few convos we were addressed by a lady I think was called Zulma. Despite my initial concerns, this woman was good, in fact brilliant and very witty. She led us all into a discussion using a huge cinema screen and wireless keyboards which was really quirky and new. It allowed us to answer simple questions such as; “What’s your favourite colour?” to “What do you think the relationship is like between PR professionals and journalists? Much to my amusement we all said words such as…’essential’ ‘love-hate’ and my personal fave ‘husband-wife!’

This was a really interesting way of discovering what a group of people thought about a particular topic. What made it even more impressive was it was easily quantifiable, meaning the facilitator was able to collate how many people said the same thing, we could even vote for our favourite answer.

We then moved on to “The World Cafe” which was basically face to face discussions around tables regarding PR’s importance and what challenges it may come up against. Normally this would be a burdening task but it was really colourful – the chewits and coloured pens on the table may have helped.

In summary it was worthwhile to discuss topics with like-minded people and also air completely different views. To culminate the event we went back to the keyboards. At this point I think everyone was tired as we did start to get a little ‘comical’ with our entries which kind of went like this:

Q: What have you learnt from this evenings experience?

A’s:

The coffee break was the best bit

Everyone hates PR people

Max Clifford is a ****

PR professionals can’t actually spell

and

Who ate all the chewits.

In the end, I’m not really sure if I learnt enough about exactly what will happen in the future for the PR Industry, I definitely didn’t have any news to bring back to the office other than the Sandbox is actually an amazing facility. BUT I did meet some lovely people and I’m really impressed that for once a group of people in PR, marketing and communications could get together and share their experiences – trust me this never usually happens.

The common cause for concern for all of us was that no one was taking care of the industry, people are forever going round thinking we are all drinking champagne and sharing snobbery about celebrities when really we do a bloody good job at changing and managing opinion whilst gaining incredible results for our clients.

Maybe CIPR could move forward with this in terms of PRing the PR industry?? If we are so good at changing opinion, shouldn’t we start to promote ourselves and then people will start to understand why PR is good for business, however they will only be able to do this with our collective support

Over and out, happy Friday by the way!

Is our need for things here and now wrapping up the papers?

At one stage it was every journalist’s dream to work in Fleet Street. According to my nan (who know’s EVERYTHING by the way), just upon walking up the bustling pavement you could even smell young enthusiasts gaining a foot in the door of the most prestigious and historical newspapers in the UK. Unfortunately, by the time I developed a thirst for current affairs and writing the journo’s had moved away and it had started to become a playground for lawyers and barristers.

Some twenty years later, the newspapers are facing a new financial upheaval and loss of identity and it is the ‘news in the sky’ that appears to be the main catalyst! Why should one pay for a paper which turns your hands dirty, when you can turn on your iPhone and have a free list of every interesting news story at your fingertips?

Our sheer need to get things quickly and as easy as possible has created a menacing dead-end for editors. But is it all wrapped up or can the traditional newspaper survive in such an ever changing world full of new technology?

Personally I love to read the newspaper, plus nothing will compare to seeing my name in print as a by-line when I worked as a reporter. Nevertheless working in the Public Relations industry is a completely different ball game. I feel it is my responsibility to seek coverage for my clients as and when it is available and in addition I want to be at the forefront of what the world is talking about in order to demonstrate fresh PR thinking! I can consume so much news from spending just a few minutes on the net.

Jonathan Hewett, director of newspaper journalism at London’s City University, said technological changes in recent years have been “immense”.

“That’s part of why newspapers are facing financial and economic challenges, in that a lot of advertising started to migrate online.”

“What newspapers have really been struggling with is ‘What’s our destination?’ and ‘What is going to make it a sustainable business?'” he said.

“No one has the answer yet, if there indeed is an answer. It may be that we are moving towards different models for different types of news media,” he said.

The New York Times and news tycoon Rupert Murdoch do think they will become pioneers of determining the new stage of newspaper – people will need to get the daily paper as normal or subscribe online as a paywall in order to get their fix. However, this will encourage the majority to seek the free sites as an alternative and push people towards its competitors.

Interestingly, The Guardian have no such intention and whilst it has a small paper circulation it could potentially be one of the highest viewed English paper on the web. Having their media boffs on the pulse, they have managed to attain an audience of around 36 million per month.

What does concern me is the fact that web based papers can control what we do see as newsworthy. We are so much more likely to view the top rated news stories on the web and surely this curbs our freedom in reading the news. Bearing this in mind I think I will attempt to strike a balance, whilst the web will enable me to know what everyone is talking about, the printed newspaper will allow me to read a larger variety of articles by an array of journalistic styles.

Whilst I don’t know how print can defer the digital age, it is vital for the big names to think long and hard about how to keep in tune with what people want. They need to stop focusing on the presumption that the net “steals” it’s content and do what they do best.. report the news!Whether that’s to an online audience or a traditional reader is probably one for their marketing professionals.

My nan however, will still get mucky hands and enjoy doing her crossword on a daily basis.